History of Alcohol

What differs from what we know as whiskies, vodka, or beer? For the most part the ingredients are the same; vodka, though clear in nature, often uses grains just like beer and whiskey. Most of us have the idea that vodka is made from potatoes; though it is in certain parts of the world like Russia; this is not always the case. Grey Goose Vodka uses wheat just like the whiskey brands, Pappy Van Winkle or Old Fitzgerald; even a classic german wheat style beer starts with the same ingredient- wheat. The process it goes through to make the end product is really the key difference. Beer is a simple process of taking cereal grains and grinding it up to make a mash, adding water and yeast in order to start a fermentation process very similar to how wine is made. Some sort of incorporation of heat is added to the mix or “juice” to help the infusion of flavors at hand and in the world of beer when we talk about Lagers or Ales- the only real difference between the two is at what temperature the juice was brought up to while making the mash. To simplify it even more, if you were to let old orange juice; fruit water to sit in a fridge with the appropriate yeast added, alcohol will begin to be created. Yeast eats sugar and the byproduct is alcohol.

Liquor is made through a very important process called distilling; distilled traditional beer is whiskey.  What distilling is, is taking your fermented product and essentially cooking it through a still, allowing the sugars and fats to evaporate as a gas and cool back into a liquid that we know as liquor. With that being said ALL liquor is gluten free; gluten is a protein found in wheat that causes so many of us to have an ill reaction; just as a reminder, liquor has no protein. There are two different styles of stills from either a pot or a column still. Both are usually made of copper or stainless steel material but the difference is how the heat is applied. Pot Stills are cooked from the bottom from a heat source while Column Stills introduce steam throughout; both work with the same idea of using heat to force out flavors from the initial juice. Once the end product of liquor is made it is diluted with water to the distillers appropriate proof or alcohol percentage, distilled again like vodka to remove more impurities and flavors, or simply poured into a wooden barrel of sorts; aged over time while naturally adding color from the wood.